The present invention relates to apparatus for automatically dispensing tickets which are joined together and connected by a perforated junction.
There are a variety of designs for machines which dispense tickets, stamps or the like which are joined together by perforated joints on a roll. One type of machine, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,820 to Shigeharu Matsuda, et al. advances a strip of cards joined by perforations between two sets of rollers. When a card is to be torn off, a first set of rollers is stopped with the second set of rollers continuing so that the tension between the rollers tears the perforated joint to separate the card. Another type of machine shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,699,100 to Simjian shows sprockets which engage holes in the side of a ticket to align the tickets with respect to a cutter blade which separates the tickets. A similar machine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,177 to Surber, Jr. The Surber device relies on bending a strip of tickets so that the perforated joint contacts a paddle extending from a wheel around which the strip of tickets is fed so that the perforated joints become aligned with the paddles, enabling the tickets to be delivered to a cutting blade in alignment.
Other ticket dispensing mechanisms use optical detectors to determine when a ticket should be cut. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,958 to Zandstra shows a ticket dispensing machine with an optical detector which senses the leading edge of the ticket being dispensed. The optical detector is mechanically positioned so that it is a ticket length in front of a cutting blade. The cutting blade is activated when the leading edge of the ticket is detected. The Zandstra device can be modified for various ticket lengths by mechanically moving the optical detector along a slideway to vary its position with respect to the cutting blade.
The machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,964 to Riddle uses an optical detector to detect the perforations between stamps in a stamp machine. The optical detector provides a pulse each time a perforation is detected so that the number of tickets dispensed can be counted. When the required number of pulses are received by the control circuit, the advancing mechanism for the tickets is stopped. A time delay is built into the control circuit so that the time between the receipt of the last pulse from the optical detector and the stopping of the advancing mechanism is equal to the amount of time for the last perforation detected to travel from the optical detector to the cutting blade. By relying on the amount of time for the strip of stamps to advance to align the cutter with the perforation, the device automatically adjusts for varying ticket lengths. However, the time delay in the electronic circuit and the motor speed must be precisely synchronized and the optical sensor must be precisely placed with respect to the cutting blade to insure proper operation.
Lottery tickets come in various sizes and shapes, but all have perforated joints and a reflective surface. A simple, economical machine capable of dispensing all types of lottery tickets is needed.